Let’s face it - aside from some slight gains in security in Iraq - there wasn’t much good news in the news in the middle east in 2009. But let’s not forget that media will always show you the scary stuff (and as they sometimes should).

However, here are 2 interesting happenings that UK’s Telegraph wanted to remind us about:

Both Saudi Arabia and Iran appointed their first female ministers. (And we got all the attention for the President!) Now, we aren’t saying that these women are liberal feminists, but it is rather interesting. To learn more about each, click on their names:

Female Health Minister - Nominated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdii

and

Deputy Education Minister for Female Education Affairs nominated by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud:

Norah al-Fayez

Read the Telegraph’s article Middle East Review for a look back at the Middle East in 2009.

According to The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, at least 33 women were burned in acid attacks and 45 were set on fire in 2007. These women are assaulted by gilted-husbands, fathers who are ashamed of their daughters…all men who find it within their power to destroy the lives of women who live in a society with less rights then they.

Thanks to the Depilex Smile Foundation , these victimized women have the opportunity to get reconstructive surgery and - to become beauticians . (*click on the Depilex name to go to their website to find out more or to donate.)

Masarrat Misbah, head of a slew of Depilex salon chains, was approached for help by one of these women over 5 years ago. She immediately began a quest to help them, but soon discovered that many of these women had interests in her line of work.

“And I felt so sad,” Misbah says. “Because beauty is all about faces and beautiful girls and skin.”

She arranged for 10 women to start training in a beauty course in Italy, and these women are now employed as beauticians in salons in Pakistan. Some clients find the sight of these women disturbing. Even after many surgeries they are still scarred and deformed for life. But most women in Pakistan see it as a good thing- they are proud to benefit women who have been brought back into the circle of female society.

One of the young beauticians, Akbar, while talking about why she likes helping women to look beautiful when she herself is forever scared said :

“They do it because the world demands it. For them, it’s a necessity. For me, it isn’t.”

For this amazing article by Nahal Toosi on MSNBC.COM including photos head to:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26223335/from/RSS/

For several other blogs about Pakistan and woman’s rights visit:

Mukhtar Mai, article about leading female Crusader on CBC.CA

CulturalAnarchyst

A Promise for Pakistan